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Jennifer Brown and Steve Kudron got help for their small business Quacker Gift Shop from ACCION New Mexico-Arizona-Colorado.

Headquarters: Albuquerque, N.M.

Number of loans: 196

ACCION New Mexico's clients run a large gamut from the home-based seamstress to companies that have been around for 20 years or more, said Leslie Hoffman, the nonprofit's vice president of lending.

The lender's clients include a shopping cart repair business and a Denver-based rubber duck gift shop. No matter who they are, the company gets personal calls and site visits from a supportive loan officer, said Hoffman.

In 2008, the organization disbursed 196 loans.

Now it serves 730 businesses with a total of $6 million in outstanding loans. It does loans as big $300,000 and wants to do more do more that are large like that.

Source: The top 10 largest microlenders were taken from the U.S. Microenterprise Census, conducted in 2009 by FIELD at the Aspen Institute. The list , which is the most recent from the Institute, presents results based on the number of microloans (loans of $35,000 or less) disbursed by 362 U.S. microlenders throughout fiscal year 2008.

Half of the microlenders on this list are ACCION nonprofits. ACCION is a large microfinance organization that is charged with helping startups and small businesses. The ACCION microlenders have the same name and similar mission statements, but each focuses on its own region and is autonomous.